Workers in industry require garments that protect them from spills of molten metal, and from chronic exposure to splashing of molten metal.
To protect against molten metal, a garment should ideally be made of non-flammable fibre, and should also repel the molten metal and resist absorption, transfer, or penetration of the molten metal. Traditionally, workers with molten metals have worn garments made from fabrics made of non-melting fibres, such as cotton. The fabrics may be rendered flame retardant with phosphorus containing compositions, such as tetrakis hydroxymethyl phosphonium chloride, tetrakis hydroxymethyl phosphonium sulfate, and n-hydroxymethyl-3-(dimethylphosphono) propionamide (e.g. as sold under the trade name PYROVATEX CP by Ciba-Geigy Corporation). Such garments, although flame-retardant, often do not repel molten metal sufficiently, meaning that the molten metal stays in contact with the garment, may even be absorbed, and therefore has sufficient time to transfer large amounts of heat to the wearer, resulting in severe burns.
An attempt to address this problem is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,446,202 (Mischutin). A flame-retardant brominated compound is dispersed in an aqueous medium with a surfactant or emulsifying agent and a colloid as a binder or thickening agent, together with a high molecular weight polymer or latex. The resulting composition is applied to a fabric, and upon drying, either by heating or exposure to air at ambient temperatures, forms a film. The film is said to occlude the interstices between the fibres sufficiently to inhibit significantly the penetration into the fibres of particles of sprayed or splattered molten metal.
Another attempt to make fabric resistant to molten metal is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,631,224, which discloses a molten metal resistant, coated fabric composition comprising:    (a) a base fabric, and (b) a coating on the surface of the fabric comprising (i) an inorganic binder composition colloidal silica, monoaluminum phosphate, aluminium chlorohydrate, and an amount of an alkyl tin halide catalyst effective to increase the bonding of said inorganic binder composition to said fabric (ii) an organic binder    (iii) metallic flakes having a saucer-like configuration, a particle size range of about 30 to about 150 microns and a thickness of about 0.5 to about 1.5 microns, the amounts of said inorganic binder composition and said organic binder being effective to bond said metallic flakes to said fabric.
There remains a need for alternative fabrics resistant to molten metal.